Their details were different now and so were their times. Prosecutors allege that Peters was paid $1 million to influence DeLaughter in a $15 million litigation that DeLaughter was presiding over. He was sentenced to life in prison. [1] In 1954, following the United States Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, he joined his local White Citizens' Council, and was also a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Walker, the attorney for Till's cousin, said Friday that the South has a history of cases of violence that were not brought to justice until decades later including the 1963 assassination of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers, for which white supremacist Byron de la Beckwith was convicted of murder in 1994. Two trials in 1964 on that charge, with all-white Mississippi juries, resulted in hung juries.In 1994, he was tried by the state in a new trial which was . Bobby DeLaughter agreed, even though he faced daunting challenges. And on the night of June 11, 1963, he met with NAACP lawyers while his family watched President Kennedy giving his Civil Rights Address on national television at home. Evers was gunned down in his Jackson, Miss., driveway by KKK leader Byron De La Beckwith in 1963. Cuando se ampla, se proporciona una lista de opciones de bsqueda para que los resultados coincidan con la seleccin actual. Two police officers had given him an alibi, swearing they saw him filling his car with gas at 1:05 a.m. on June 12, 1963. Two suspects are still alive: Pete Harris, a Klan investigator who reportedly helped gather Klansmen for the job that ended with the trio being shot to death on June 21, 1964, and Olen Burrage, who owns the property where the three bodies were buried. David Ridgen, Who Killed Frank Morris? Medgar Evers was a member of the NAACP and the first field secretary for Mississippi. Born in California in 1920, Byron De La Beckwith grew up in Mississippi. All of a sudden, we heard a shot. Delay de la Beckwith. He was 80. After his graduation, he worked with Dr. T.R.M. Byron De La Beckwith stood across the street from Medgar Evers home and gunned him down as Evers exited the car. Beckwith, 80, died Sunday night at University Medical Center, where he had been taken from his prison cell. At this point, authorities werent serious about pursuing a case against Beckwith. Because the trial judge in his discretion allowed defense counsel to interview Van Riper before he took the stand, and due to the relative insignificance of Van Riper's testimony in light of other more direct evidence . Byron De la Beckwith was tried and acquitted twice in 1964 in connection with the Evers case, with all-white juries on both occasions. I do my best to speak to Klan suspects as soon as I learn their names because I realize this may be the only time they will talk. Byron is also best known as, Ku Klux Klansman who assassinated African-American civil rights activist Medgar Evers in 1963. A friend of mine who happens to be a terrific investigative reporter has a button that reads, I just catch em. Thelma Neff Beckwith, the widow of Byron De La Beckwith, has been awarded $175,000 in punitive damages by a Hamilton County Chancery Court jury. We knew what it was. The Clarion-Ledger reported in 1989 that secret files of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission showed it had aided Beckwiths defense in his second trial by screening potential jurors. By this time, De La Beckwith was living in Walden, Tennessee, just outside Signal Mountain, Tennessee, a suburb of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Fugitive in $18 million COVID fraud scheme extradited to U.S. Where things stand in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial, How Alaska became one of fentanyl's deadliest frontiers, Pennsylvania police seized gloves, flashlight from home of Idaho murders suspect, U.S. requests extradition of drug kingpin's son, Mexico says. Medgar Evers was NAACPs first field secretary in Mississippi. So when I walked to the courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi, the city where my newspaper, The Clarion-Ledger, is located, my intention was to find the court documents for that case, J77-0047(B). He made a living selling tobacco, candy, fertilizer and firewood. Memory of Racial Insinuations, But Jonathan Willard, a 23-year-old sales clerk at Brown Brothers Hardware, recalled Mr. Beckwith as someone who came into the store to buy tools and supplies for yard work and "was always making insinuations about race and religion.". Justice had been delayed, but they believed it had finally been realized. It must be protected and cherished as one of our greatest rights through history and into the future. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Long-lost ship found at the bottom of Lake Huron, confirming story of tragic collision, TikTok to set default daily time limit of up to 60 minutes for minors, Jaguars, narcos, illegal loggers: One mans battle to save a Guatemalan jungle and Maya ruins, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, Newsom rescinds Californias COVID-19 state of emergency, marking an end to the pandemic era, Dr. Simi is a TikTok star. He shared purported details of the slaying, some of which do not appear in any court transcript or book. He was traveling a lot at that time. Nos. Byron De La Beckwith Jr. (November 9, 1920 - January 21, 2001) was an American murderer, a white supremacist and a member of the Ku Klux Klan from Greenwood, Mississippi.He murdered the civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963. [10] On February 5, 1994, a jury composed of eight African-Americans and four whites, convicted De La Beckwith of murder for killing Medgar Evers. In 1994, he was tried by the state in a new trial which was based on new evidence. Until earlier this week, most residents of this mountain community outside Chattanooga had casually attributed it to that relatively new husband of Thelma Neff -- that white-haired talkative man who spoke more with a deep Southern drawl than a mountain twang, who let just about anyone know two minutes into a conversation that he did not much like blacks and Jews. "As (W.E.B.) Ghosts of Mississippi is a 1996 American biographical courtroom drama film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg, and James Woods.The plot is based on the true story of the 1994 trial of Byron De La Beckwith, the white supremacist accused of the 1963 assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers.. James Woods was nominated for an Academy Award for Best . There are only three kinds of people that live in Mississippi, Beckwith told the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., in an interview shortly before his arrest in 1990. [14], On January 21, 2001, De La Beckwith died after he was transferred from prison to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi. Burrage reportedly bragged to Klansmen about having a dam that would hold a bunch of civil rights workers. Mitchell reported that officials for the agency illegally screened prospective jurors for Beckwiths trials to eliminate any who might convict him. It sought "to keep us segregated and to promote council schools and private schools and to fight integration," the younger Beckwith said. Since that man, Byron de la (pronounced DEE-lay) Beckwith, has been indicted for the third time in the killing of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers 27 years ago in Mississippi, people here are eager to make it clear to the world that his white supremacist views do not reflect the community. Personal Life and Death. Medgar was lying there . Before his trial, the 71-year-old white supremacist had asked the justices to dismiss the case against him on the grounds that it violated his rights to a speedy trial, due process and protection from double jeopardy. Born in Colusa, Calif., Beckwith moved to Mississippi with his widowed mother when he was 5. During its heyday, the commission gathered files on 10,000 people and 250 organizations it described as subversive, militant or revolutionary groups. In 1977, Mississippi finally did away with what had been acting as a state agency. In the 19th century, wealthy residents maintained summer homes here as well as on Lookout Mountain southwest of the city, Professor Wilson said. It was the first of 5 meetings to continue filming over the past 5 years. The rifle had Beckwith's fingerprint on it. He said Ms. Skiba shared the "political views" of Mrs. Beckwith's late husband, who was convicted of the civil rights murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi. Heres a list, Greek transportation minister resigns over train collision that killed at least 36, Ohios senators to unveil rail safety bill in wake of East Palestine derailment, After months of pounding, Ukrainian official says military may pull back from Bakhmut, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, Shocking, impossible gas bills push restaurants to the brink of closures, Elizabeth Holmes cites her new baby as a reason she should avoid prison for Theranos scam, What time is it on the moon? All of a sudden, we heard a shot. The gatherings his father attended were more like business meetings or private conversations, he said. Attorney Mitchell Byrd said Ms. Skiba had befriended Mrs. Beckwith after she (Ms. Skiba) was released from prison in Georgia. For the next nine years, Evers traveled up and down the highways taking reports of racism, violence, and terror that plagued Black Mississippians. One of the first days he was there he was assaulted by a group of young men led by Byron "Delay" De La Beckwith, the son of the man convicted of killing civil rights activist Medgar Evers. There's still a lot of hate left. He urged the jury to "send a message to all those like Judy Skiba in our community and state that this abuse of trust and fraud toward the helpless, oppressed and elderly would not be tolerated in our community. How Byron De La Beckwith Became A White Supremacist. we didnt have anything, DeLaughter said. During her journalism career, Katina has covered everything from the Mississippi murder trials of Byron De La Beckwith and Sam Bowers to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in Texas. "I remember as recently as 1983 when the Klan in their robes but without their hoods were out here each year at major intersections with buckets collecting donations just like the Shriners do," he said. During the next several months, I began developing sources to help me find out. At the same time, Byron De La Beckwith crouched with his .30-06 caliber rifle across the street from Evers home, waiting in the shadows to kill the activist when he arrived. Tell me I cant have something, and I want it a million times more. His father was convicted in a 1994 trial in which six witnesses testified the elder Beckwith had bragged about killing Evers. In 1965 he assaulted civil rights worker Paul Saltzman, in Greenwood, Mississippi. De La Beckwith and Williams divorced, and he later married Thelma Lindsay Neff.[1]. I managed to track down the former officers. Bryon De La Beckwith evaded justice after the cowardly killing of Mississippi civil rights activist Medgar Evers in June 1963. I view my job as a reporter to assemble whatever evidence exists and put it out there so everyone can see it. ", Evers' brother, Charles, remarked, "I'll be damned. / CBS News. A relative of Emmett Till is suing to try to make a Mississippi sheriff serve a 1955 arrest warrant on a white woman in the kidnapping that led to the Black teenager's brutal . He was raised by his maternal uncle William Greene Yerger and his wife. Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the murder of Medgar Evers in 1994. [8] On October 24, he released his debut EP Inglewood High, a 7-track project including a feature from Gouch. Ultimately, Mitchells research reopened the case against Byron De La Beckwith. Two trials of De La Beckwith ended with hung juries, but he was finally convicted of first . Two all-white juries deadlocked in trials in 1964. . Authorities arrested dozens, but he was never prosecuted. It Takes a Hard-Driving Team to Uncover the Truth of a Cold Case, A Fathers Life Tugs His Son to Revisit Unsolved Crimes, Summer 2004: Journalists Trade Introduction. But even though the evidence against Beckwith was overwhelming, he escaped conviction twice in 1964 due to hung juries. He had served his time in World War II, and he felt like he had more rights. On February 5, 1994, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith is convicted in the murder of African American civil rights leader Medgar Evers, over 30 years after the crime occurred. [11][12][13] New evidence included testimony that during the three decades since the crime had occurred, De La Beckwith had boasted of having committed the murder on multiple occasions-including at a Klan rally. JAM. ", Asked if he killed Evers, he replied, "No, but it'd be a hell of a story if it were true.". Since that man, Byron de la (pronounced DEE-lay) Beckwith, has been indicted for the third time in the killing of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers 27 years ago in Mississippi, people here are . UPI File Photo. The area is "middle- to upper-middle class and lily white," said one resident, Phillip Rollinson, and there is little in the local culture that would readily evoke events of 27 years ago. Mother Connie Goode is such an awesome woman of God. [5] Evers died an hour later, aged 37. . In 1994, at the age of seventy-three, Beckwith was at last found guilty of murdering Evers; he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Decades later, Saltzman returns to the south to meet with Beckwith and see what, if anything, has changed in the New South. Although his father had been a prosperous irrigation entrepreneur when he died on August 10, 1926, he left his young family deeply in debt. The work Evers did continued throughout the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and continues to inspire new generations of activists. Then, see these disturbing historical photos that reveal what its like to grow up in the KKK. He can be found on Twitter @jmitchellnews. But there was little indication that Mr. Beckwith actively sought to recruit people for any white supremacist groups. He was extradited to Mississippi for trial at the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson. The attack was a racially motivated retaliation for comments that Botnick had made about white Southerners and race relations. In the early morning of June 12, 1963, tragedy struck in the driveway of 2332 Guynes Street in Jackson, Mississippi. the men confessed in a paid interview with Look magazine. Byron De La Beckwith, whose father murdered Medgar Evers, is the very human face of intolerance in Saltzmans film. Heres the story they started to tell: In the summer of 1964, a spy named Agent Y, pretending to be a civil rights worker, had infiltrated the Council of Federated Organizations. But it took more than 30 years for De La Beckwith to be convicted of his murder. The American Civil Liberties Union had sued to open them, but the lawsuit had been dragging on for years with no resolution in sight. 2d 547 | Casetext Search + Citator", "For God's Sake: The Assassination of Medgar Evers", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Byron_De_La_Beckwith&oldid=1141529956, Byron De La Beckwith was the subject of the 1963, In 1991, the murder of Evers and first trials of Beckwith were the basis of the episode titled ", This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 14:45. In 2020, his home was designated a national historic site and a national monument under the National Parks Service. In reaching across the decades, even a fist like Beckwith's opens to clasp another's hand. [1], De La Beckwith appealed against the guilty verdict, but the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1997. } In January 1966, De La Beckwith, along with a number of other members of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee to testify about Klan activities. He was sentenced to life in prison, according to the Associated Press. Henry T. Blake, A.B. Others have cancelled subscriptions. [2][pageneeded] Just before entering prison to serve his sentence, De La Beckwith was ordained by Reverend Dewey "Buddy" Tucker as a minister in the Temple Memorial Baptist Church, a Christian Identity congregation in Knoxville, Tennessee.[8]. ", That's another reason he believes his father didn't fire the weapon, he said. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. In 2005, Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen went to prison for orchestrating the 1964 killings of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Schwerner near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Byron De La Beckwith Jr. (November 9, 1920 January 21, 2001) was an American murderer, a white supremacist and a member of the Ku Klux Klan from Greenwood, Mississippi. And one shot. In these cases, overqualified simply means that the employer is not willing to pay more for qualifications that they may not consider essential and that you're simply too expensive.. Is being overqualified for a job good? Without ever shying from the brutality of racial hatred, Saltzman's first-person inquiry into the human face of intolerance an inquiry that also includes the voices of lifelong activist Harry Belafonte, members of Evers's surviving family, Mississippi resident Morgan Freeman and three hooded representatives of the state's KKK is bracing for its conviction in the power of simple human contact. Whites, colored and trash, and theres very little trash in Mississippi., Beckwith said that although he was not willing to lay my life down to rid evil from this country, he was willing to kill the evil in this country that would try to push me out.. Ten years after his father's death, Byron De La Beckwith Jr. is sharing secrets, saying those behind NAACP leader Medgar Evers' assassination belonged to the Citizens' Council. By doing this I hope to reveal how the system failed to provide justice. He is wrong, and that is why I continue to dig. [4] He was honorably discharged in August 1945. Though he was assassinated at just 37 years old, Medgar Evers legacy remains strong in Mississippi as a story of inspiration and action. In the early morning hours of June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers -- a 37-year-old, black civil rights activist -- was shot and killed outside his home in Jackson, Miss . Along with a few others, I was curious to learn what these files contained. Ridgen and others have been working on documentaries about these cases. While Mrs. Dooley said that his white supremacist views were "nothing that any of us would want to be a part of," she noted that she could not remember Mr. Beckwith ever mentioning them. Uploaded Mar 16, 2017 9:49 Fannie Lou Hamer: Grassroots Civil Rights Movement . brookstone therapeutic percussion massager with lcd screen; do nigel and jennifer whalley still own albury park The torture and killing of Till in the Mississippi Delta became a catalyst for the civil . "I can tell you this much: My daddy could not drive the damn car from Jackson, Miss., to the service station in the allotted time," the younger Beckwith said. Evers's accused killer, a white supremacist named Byron De La Beckwith, stood trial twice in the 1960s, but in both cases the all-white juries could not reach a verdict. His father died in prison Jan. 21, 2001, while serving a life sentence for Evers' assassination. On the night of June 12, 1963, the dreaded happened. It ultimately initiated a third prosecution, based on this and other new evidence.[1]. Botnick, the director of the Bnai Brith Anti-Defamation League. As the kids crawled on the floor to a bedroom, Myrlie went to the front door. The commission had worked against the civil rights movement in numerous ways. Byron De la Beckwith Net Worth: Byron De la Beckwith is a famous Criminal who has a net worth of $1-5 million.He was born on November 9, 1920 and his birthplace is California. Mr. Beckwith died in prison in Mississippi in January 2001. He agreed to meet and be interviewed, on film, by Saltzman in 2007. Byron De La Beckwith, Jr. (November 9, 1920 - January 21, 2001) was an American white supremacist and Klansman from Greenwood, Mississippi, who in 1994 was convicted of assassinating the civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963. When James Woods appeared on "Inside the Actors Studio", he explained how he looked for a way to play Byron de la Beckwith.He said that after watching and reading many interviews with the real Beckwith, he noticed how he used the "N" word with such ease and regularity and that this was clearly a totally natural and almost unthinking part of his speech and vocabulary. Byron De La Beckwith, Beckwith was tried twice for the murder of Medger Evers. he asked. display: none; The white supremacist was still alive, 69 and spry, no less a racist than he had been before. After gaining the confidence of council leaders, he stole applications and photographs of incoming Freedom Summer volunteers. It found that the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a state agency supported by residents' taxes and purportedly protecting the image of the state, had assisted De La Beckwith's attorneys in his second trial. Modeled after the white Citizens Councils that spread across the South in the wake of the United States Supreme Courts 1954 decision outlawing segregated public schools, the commission was formed two years later with state money behind its fight. Shots rang out in front of the Evers home. A few continue to level threats. The cooler climes of this mountainous region have long made it a haven from the heat and humidity of Chattanooga, the city in the valley. He was given a life sentence without parole and died of heart disease in prison in 2001. Three years later, Beckwith ran for lieutenant governor and finished fifth among six candidates, with more than 34,000 votes. Town Distances Itself From Suspect in Evers Case, https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/21/us/town-distances-itself-from-suspect-in-evers-case.html, Ronald Smothers, Special To the New York Times. In 1982, he married Thelma Neff, and they remained together until his death in 2001.Byron died on January 21, 2001, at the age of eighty while still in prison.He had suffered from numerous illnesses including high blood pressure and kidney . "I know details nobody else knows," said the 64-year-old former Marine, breaking his silence. Covering thought leadership in journalism. We shall take in our salt at the Cape de Verds, between decks, after which she will roll easier. Law enforcement officers turned away his father, but he, then 15, made it on campus. Being overqualified is just fine if you need to focus on things in your life other than work, like your family. Place in Civil War. She has not commented publicly on . Most of the time, I turn out to be the only reporter to get an interview, and in most of these cases, these Klansmen never speak to authorities. The second leak showed that at the same time the state had prosecuted Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers, the commission, working on behalf of the governor, had secretly sought Beckwiths acquittal. The work of Stanley Nelson, editor of the Concordia Sentinel, led to a grand jury in Ferriday, Louisiana considering evidence in the Klans 1964 killing of Frank Morris. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. He listed his health problems, high blood pressure, lack of energy and kidney problems, saying, "I need a list to recite everything I suffer from, and I hate to complain because I'm not the complaining type". Some information may no longer be current. Thanks to the work of journalist Ben Greenberg who works out of his home near Boston, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been looking at the Klans 1964 killing of Clifton Walker near Natchez, Mississippi. Edward C. Billings, A.B., LL. Byron de la Beckwith was born on 9 November, 1920 in Colusa, California, USA, is an Actor. 1994 trial for Evers murder. After Evers arrived, he got out of his car, closed the door and stepped forward, turned his back and was shot in the right shoulder, Beckwith said. Thats been my experience time and again with these cases. He is writing a book about these unpunished killings, Race Against Time, for Simon & Schuster. "They still have not convicted the murderer of Medgar Evers," the younger Beckwith said. Byron ("Delay") de la Beckwith, Jr., joined the Ku Klux Klan, the KKK, when he was 15 years old. Mrs. Beckwith was 92 years old at the time she signed a deed to property she owned on Wilson Avenue on Signal Mountain. "Are you going to be thinking rationally?" "For some people up here that sort of thing is just part of their identity. Scoop a new vibe in the numbers and do todays Daily Sudoku. Anyone can read what you share. The two-day trial and jury verdict also set aside a . Byron De la Beckwith was born in California. About 15,000 people now live in the communities clustered the area, which got its name during the Civil War when the Army Signal Corps used it as a relay point to send messages west to supply lines in northern Alabama and western Tennessee. Trending News Hansen, Mark. As a child, the younger Beckwith said, he attended council meetings across the state and helped his father sell memberships and copies of the speech, "Black Monday," which compared African Americans to chimpanzees. The two-day trial and jury verdict also set aside a deed from Mrs. Beckwith to Judy Skiba, the defendant in the case. "If my daddy pulled the trigger, he knew he'd done what he went to do, and he had given up his wife, he had given up his child for his cause, but he wasn't crazy.". A.M., M.D. 2017 NHD Project of Samantha Booker and Avvie Jones, Placed in the top three at Districts. Former Delta-Democrat Times Editor Hodding Carter III marveled at the revelation regarding the Citizens' Council, saying the council "simply had a veneer of civilization over the same old root hog racism. On February 5, 1994, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the 1963 killing of Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers. Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers, who ordered the killings, once vowed the secrets of what happened that night and so many other dark nights in Mississippi would remain buried forever. Beckwith attempted to appeal his case several times, citing that 31 years for a conviction violated his right to a speedy trial. In 1989, at the insistence of Evers' widow Myrlie Evers Williams, the Hinds County . He's creating a lot of problems. Even Saltzman, who sits across from Beckwith for most of the duration of The Last White Knight, eventually feels compelled to admit he likes the man (whom he hadn't seen since the courthouse incident), and therein lies the powerfully beating heart of Saltzman's movie about the encounter. Atty. But then there was the matter of the documents; the commission had gathered more than 130,000 pages of spy files. Just observing things, looking at things. And following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, he attempted to enroll in the segregated University of Mississippi Law School to study law as a test case for the organization, but he was denied because he was Black. The area is made up of the the town of Signal Mountain with a population of 7,200, the adjacent town of Walden with 2,500 residents and a growing unincorporated area of about 5,000 people. Charles McLaurin oral . Months later, the men confessed in a paid interview with Look magazine. Beckwith had positioned himself across the street with a rifle, and he shot Evers in the back. Little did I Now in her late 80s, Donham has lived in North Carolina and Kentucky in recent years. My health is such I'm not going to die in the next few weeks. McCarty, in character as as the hackneyed racist folk-singer Byron de la Vandal, recently recounted to a White Nationalist blog the story of his radicalization into neo-Nazi politics through the /pol/ discussion board on 4chan, and the cementing of his anti-Semitic belief system through reading "The Culture of Critique," an anti-semitic pseudo-academic book written by disgraced . He murdered the civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963. On June 23, Byron De La Beckwith, a fertilizer salesman and member of the White Citizens' Council and Ku Klux Klan, wasarrested for Evers' murder. After two hung jury trialsand with new evidence a reporter uncoveredByron De La Beckwith was convicted in the murder of Medgar Evers. At 22, Beckwith became a Marine, served in World War II, and was honorably discharged. Mitchells rapportering har bidraget til at stte mindst fire klansmnd bag tremmerne: Byron De La Beckwith for 1963-mordet p NAACP-leder Medgar Evers, Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers for at beordre den fatale ildbombning af NAACP-leder Vernon Dahmer i 1966, Bobby Cherry til 1963-bombningen af en kirke i Birmingham, der drbte fire piger, og i . In Rated R&Bs interview with Davion Farris, he opens up about every song on his Moved EP. Byron De La Beckwith was tried twice for the crime in 1964. On February 5, 1994, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, . I continue to pore through 40,000 pages of FBI records, the entire FBI case file in the Klans 1964 killings of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. The work of John Fleming, editor at large for The Anniston (Ala.) 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